Seduce Me Read Free Page A

opened the door and turned his body, blocking her way into his SUV with those long arms and broad shoulders.
    Not fond of intimidation, she tipped her head up and slowly cocked a brow, then realized…he wasn’t trying to intimidate her at all. Not with his eyes filled with apology and self-deprecation.
    â€œI didn’t mean—”
    â€œForget it.” She wasn’t willing to fall for a simple sweet look, not when, for all she knew, the man might be full of them.
    â€œNo, really.” He rubbed the bridge of his noseand met her sardonic gaze. “Look, obviously, I’ve made a hell of a first impression.”
    She felt a smile curve her mouth. “Do you care?”
    â€œActually, I didn’t plan to. But…”
    â€œBut…?”
    His gaze danced over her features. “I find that I do care.” His smile was slow and genuine, and made her tummy flutter. “I want to enjoy this evening with you.”
    â€œWhy? Because I’m passably pretty?”
    â€œMore than passably,” he said lightly. “But no, I don’t suddenly want to enjoy this just because you turned out to be an extremely pleasant surprise, but because we might as well have fun.”
    â€œYou mean for two people who didn’t want to do this in the first place?”
    His smile went to a grin that jump-started her pulse, startling her. “Yeah, something like that.”
    â€œStop that,” she said, pointing at his mouth.
    â€œStop…what?”
    â€œSmiling.”
    â€œWhy? Do I have something in my teeth?”
    He knew he didn’t. A guy like this knew exactly how good he looked. “Okay, listen. I’m going to be honest with you right from the get-go.”
    â€œPlease.”
    â€œI have a long, horrible, nasty history with blind dates, and I’d talked myself into lumpingyou in with the worst of them, but I can’t do that when you smile.”
    The grin only spread. “Really? Well, same goes. I have an idea. Why don’t we start over.” He stuck out his hand. “Hi, I’m Jack Knight.”
    â€œI’m not going to commit to starting over, not yet. You might still turn out to be a blind-date disaster.”
    â€œYeah.” He rubbed his jaw. “You might be right.”
    She climbed into his Escalade. “I usually am.”
    His soft laugh scraped low in her belly. “Something tells me this is going to be a much more interesting night than I could have imagined.”
    â€œIs that good or bad?”
    He came around and slid his long body in behind the wheel. He looked at her as he started the engine. “Not sure yet.”
    â€œSo we’ll leave that up in the air as well.” With that, Sam put on her seat belt and braced herself for the evening ahead.
    But she had a little smile of anticipation on her face.

2
    O NCE UPON A TIME , scandal had been Jack’s middle name. Jack Scandal Knight.
    Not that he’d asked for such a rep. Nope, he’d been tried and convicted in the court of the tabloids, without a jury of his peers. But that was in the past.
    Tonight, he’d pulled out his tux with a simple goal in mind—get the evening over with as fast and painlessly as possible. No scandal. No surprises. No nothing. Just show up, raise more money for his sister’s beloved charity that helped underprivileged kids, then go on his merry way.
    Should be easy, given that over the past year he’d become the master of fast and painless, at least as far as public appearances went. The trick was to be visible, but not approachable. Pleasant and professional, but not particularly nice. This talent had been hard-earned, costing him unknown amounts of heartache and grief, but it was a rule he assumed every celebrity eventually learned, one way or another.
    All he had to do was arrive at the country club with a date in tow, and his sister would stop pestering him, at least for the evening. Maybe